Ukraine shines at Para Table Tennis Lignano Master Open 2015

Ukraine’s para-table tennis players won six gold medals to top the medals table at the Lignano Master Open 2015 in Lignano, Italy, from 17 to 22 March.

Maksym Nikolenko won the gold medal in the men’s singles class 7 while his teammate Viktor Didukh beat Poland’s Piotr Grudzien to take gold in the men’s singles class 8.

Both Nikolenko and Didukh went on to win two more gold medals in the respective team events together with their partners Mukhaylo Popov (class 7) and Ivan Mai (class 8).

Yuriy Shchepasnkyy and his partner Vadym Kubov won gold medal number five for Ukraine in the men’s team class 9, while Andrii Navrotskyi secured the sixth gold medal in the men’s team class 11 partnering with Belgium’s Florian van Acker.

France placed second in the medals table with 19 medals, five of which were gold.

Jean-Francois Ducay beat South Korea’s Jae-kwan Cho in the final of the men’s singles class 1 to finish on top of the podium. Ducay’s compatriot Frederic Bellais secured gold in the men’s singles class 9 event.

In the women’s singles class 7 Thu Kamkasomphou won gold for France ahead of Kelly van Zon of the Netherlands.

Two more French gold medals followed in the team events. Stephane Molliens and Vicent Boury won gold in the men’s team class 2, while Kamkasomphou added a second gold medal to her personal tally together with her partner Anne Barneoud in the women’s team class 7.

Para table tennis players of South Korea also had a successful tournament winning five gold medals.

Min-gyu Kim took gold in the men’s singles class 2 and Il Sang Choi in the men’s singles class 4.

Su Yeon Seo beat Russia’s Nadejda Pouchpacheva in the women’s singles class 1-2 to top the podium before she then teamed up with Pouchpacheva to also take the women’s team class 1-2 gold.

Jae-kwan Cho and KiWon Nam secured gold in the men’s team class 1 event.

More than 300 players from 35 countries took part in the tournament.

To view full results, visit ITTF Para Table Tennis website.